En plein air, finally!

I've been wanting to find another artist to go painting outside with me, and last week I discovered that a friend of mine had recently started painting again, and wanted to go paint en plein air. So, last Wednesday three of us went downtown and painted a local landmark, the oak trees at Toomer's Corner. If any of you are aware of the Auburn/Alabama rivalry you probably read about the nut who poisoned the Toomer's Oaks after we beat Alabama last year. He most definitely does not represent Alabama fans, but he claimed to have done it because he loved Alabama and hated Auburn. Crazy!!

Anyway, the poor trees are definitely dying. After having done the painting last week and sold a bunch of prints and notes this past weekend, I read that the university is saying if you want to see the trees while they are still green, you need to come in the next few weeks.

Here is my painting:

I hope to go painting with Jill and Kim again in a couple of weeks! It was great fun.

Recent Artwork

I haven't posted much artwork lately, but I have been painting. Two of the most recent ones are gifts to the two people who responded to my "Pay it Forward" post, and I wanted to finish them both before I posted them. I intend to put them in the mail this week. :)



The dogwood painting is for my high school friend Mona Helen in California. She said she misses the dogwoods the most, so I'm sending her some of her own!



The pansies are for a fellow artist, Deborah, in Michigan. I have to apologize to each of these ladies for taking such a long time to get these to them. I haven't forgotten but life has gotten in the way!

I've done a couple of fun sketches completely different from my usual style, and they were fun. :)





A couple of months ago I picked the white iris and just had the urge to do something different! A few weeks later a friend and her kids came over, and we walked across the street to the lake. The children fished and Marie and I visited while I did this rough sketch of the lake. I didn't have the courage to put the children in it. Maybe next time!



I did this one last week after finishing the pansies, and I love it! It's different, too, but it was a lot of fun.

Last Friday I participated in Summer Night, an outdoor art evening in our local downtown area. Quite a few artists had their artwork on display and for sale, and many stores remained open extra hours. I saw lots of folks I haven't seen in a while, and enjoyed myself very much!

Bur Oak, otherwise known as Mossy Cup Oak...

Thanks to all who emailed us with the answer to our question of what type of acorns Jon found! We also googled it and found the same thing- these acorns are from the Bur Oak, and are the largest and sweetest of all acorns. They are also sometimes called Mossycup oaks, and the moss-like fringe certainly shows they are aptly named!

With our Christmas preparations this week I've only now had time to do a small sketch of one. I plan to do more, however! This one was fun, but the painting doesn't show the mossyness nearly as much as it should. I'll work on that in the next one.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

More pictures of David

I thought I'd upload a couple more pictures of David during the Expo last week. He and I took a break (or gave the other exhibitors a break!) for a couple of hours on Thursday and went out to the beach. I was so cold! I was wearing jeans and a light jacket and still wrapped up in our towels while David played. I also brought a small sketch book and did a couple of drawings while sitting there. Just about the time I started really getting into them and enjoying the opportunity to draw some Laughing Gulls, David got cold and we had to go in.

I thought you might also like to see the view from our window of the spectacular sunset that night! Wow. Isn't God's creation magnificent??!

I've sold a number of my card packs already, much to my encouragement. Today I sat down and looked through other paintings and decided to have a few more printed to see how they look. If I like them I may print notes from them as well. I need to find time to paint! :)

If I don't post again before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a blessed one! Stay safe on the roads if you travel.

Some new paintings

A couple of weeks ago I did some small paintings that I really enjoyed. I had so much fun I think I'll keep doing some this size. They are about 5"x7". I think I'm going to put the one with the butterfly up on my Greeting Card Universe store and Cafe Press. Neither of the originals is available for sale, but prints of the butterfly one are.

Plenty from a friend's garden

Several weeks ago a good friend invited ds and me to lunch after a pleasant morning of blueberry picking together. Afterwards, she sent me home with bounty from her garden! It was wonderfully colorful, so I took pictures before we began to consume it.

This weekend I did a couple of small paintings from some of the pictures, and began several others. I think I overworked these tomatoes, but I enjoyed myself! I'll post the others when I finish them.

On a different subject, we've been on two field trips in two weeks! Amazing. Last year in school we barely did two field trips in a half a year. Anyway, we went to the Audobon Aquarium in New Orleans two weeks ago when we traveled with dh on a business trip, and last week we went to Callaway Gardens with the same friend who gave us food from her garden. We have really enjoyed both trips. I plan to do more field trips this year to help ds enjoy school more. He is such a hands-on learner that I think they are good for him.